Tesla Updates Autopilot With Increased Use Of Onboard Radar

Tesla has announced its Version 8 software and with it, a host

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by Brad Anderson

September 12, 2016 at 04:01

Tesla has announced its Version 8 software and with it, a host of improvements to help make Autopilot safer.

The most significant update to the Autopilot self-driving system will see it increase its reliance on the firm’s in-built radar and the use of cameras decrease. Tesla claims that after extensive research, it believes the radar can now be used as “a primary control sensor without requiring the camera to confirm visual image recognition”.

All Tesla models built since October 2014 were equipped with this radar as part of the Autopilot hardware suite but until now, it’s only been used to supplement the primary camera. Now, the radar uses more advanced signal processing to build a 3D picture of the world thanks to the “snapshots” the radar takes every tenth of a second.

As with previous iterations of Autopilot, the updated system will also make the most of fleet learning with each Autopilot-equipped Tesla mapping its surrounding environment and sharing this information.

Ultimately, company boss Elon Musk believes that when fully refined, the updated system will aid massively in emergency braking situations and even allow the car to brake on its own “if a UFO were to land on the freeway in zero visibility conditions”.